Mitchell knows he won't be able to match his team up individually with the Celtics tonight because, once again, he won't have either Chris Bosh or Andrea Bargnani available.

There is a sense Bosh might play at home Sunday against Houston, but no one knows for sure when the day-to-day Bargnani will play. But it won't be tonight, since neither he nor Bosh travelled with the team to Boston.

One small consolation is that point guard T.J. Ford seems close to 100 per cent and could even return to the starting lineup tonight.

Listening to Mitchell and Ford discuss the point guard's role was like listening to a couple of ultra-polite gentlemen do the "No, you first; No, please, you first" routine.

"We know we can put up points," Ford said. "We just have to come out and do a better job of playing defence. (Boston) doesn't use pick-and-rolls as much as Phoenix and spread the floor as much, so we should be able to do a better job of being in our right rotations."

Mitchell said he won't do that too many times in the normal course of the season.

"I may do it against Phoenix, but I'm not going to make a standard diet of that," Mitchell said. "Because now what happens if both get tired or they both pick up fouls? You can only do it in spurts. I may do it against Phoenix, but I'm not going to make a habit of doing it."

"T.J. is pretty good at wearing whatever we grab for him," the equipment manager said. "The other night, T.J. could not find his headband, and so we said, 'Hey, let's switch it up.' Ten minutes before he went out [for a game against the Phoenix Suns], we grabbed a white one."